More draftees asking for missile-defense divisions

OC Manpower Directorate tells Barak that 73.3 percent of youth asked to serve in combat units, the same proportion as last year.

By YAAKOV KATZ
Orna Barbivai 311 (photo credit: IDF Spokesperson)
Orna Barbivai 311
(photo credit: IDF Spokesperson)
New immigrants from more than 50 countries will be drafted into the IDF over the coming weeks, OC Manpower Directorate Maj.-Gen. Orna Barbivai said Sunday on the first day of the summer draft.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited the Tel Hashomer Induction Center as recruits arrived to be drafted into the Golani Brigade, which is the most popular of the five infantry brigades among new draftees.
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Barbivai told Barak that 73.3 percent of youth asked to serve in combat units, the same proportion as last year.
The highlight of the new draft is the increase in the number of soldiers being inducted into the Israel Air Force’s Air Defense Division to fill slots required to operate the growing number of Iron Dome batteries being deployed throughout the country to defend against short-range rockets such as the Kassams and Katyushas that make up the backbone of Hamas’s arsenal in the Gaza Strip.
The IAF plans to receive its third battery by the end of the year, and in the meantime is continuing to move its two existing batteries throughout the country as it selects locations near various cities and strategic facilities such as IDF bases and critical infrastructure where it can be deployed in a future conflict.
The Air Defense Division will grow by another battalion in 2012 ahead of the deployment of the David’s Sling, which will serve as the missile-defense system for the mid-tier missiles threatening Israel.